The Astronomer Royal

Lord Martin Rees tells us about black holes and existential risks.

I interviewed Lord Martin Rees in the 16th-century courtyard of Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens. Originally built as the summer…By John Steele

I interviewed Lord Martin Rees in the 16th-century courtyard of Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens. Originally built as the summer residence of Pope Pius IV, Mozart was rumored to have played there, and some of the greatest minds of science have strolled through it. We were both attending a workshop at the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, called “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature, Our Responsibility.” I was attending as a journalist, and Rees, as a member of the Academy—an honor he has shared with Stephen Hawking, Max Planck, Neils Bohr, and Edwin Schrodinger among many other greats.

He had just presented a paper to the Academy about the existential risks facing humanity. Its message was in keeping with the moniker he’d earned in 2003, when the BBC dubbed him “the prophet of doom” for his less than optimistic stance on the future of our species. But in person, he was the very spark of scientific imagination and enthusiasm. Astronomer Royal, former Master of Trinity College Cambridge, former President of the Royal Society, and, as of 2005, a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, Martin Rees is one of the most distinguished astronomers of our age. He has authored or co-authored over 500 papers and more than a dozen books, and won major awards including the Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth, The Templeton Prize, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, and the Isaac Newton Medal.

Rees thinks in cosmic distances, large scales and the long term. As for humanity? “If we can get through this century,” he tells me, “then there’s a huge future of far more marvelous evolution beyond.”

Daniel Wolf Savin likes to joke that his astrophysics lab at Columbia University, which researches the birth of stars, should be called the “Genesis Lab.” “If you read Genesis, that’s chapter one, verse three: ‘And God said, ‘Let there be...READ MORE

Related Articles:

Nautilus uses cookies to manage your digital subscription and show you your reading progress. It's just not the same without them.
Please sign in to Nautilus Prime or turn your cookies on to continue reading.Thank you!